Customer Reviews

The Usborne Art Treasury

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is wonderful! I am planning to use it as an art/art history curriculum for my kindergarten-age daughter in the fall, and I can hardly wait to get started! The book includes art by 22 artists from better-known van Gogh, Degas, and Picasso to lesser-known 20th-century artists and unknown African mask makers and Iranian tile artists. One work of art by each artist is showcased along with brief, interesting history about the piece and the artist. On the next page spread, there is detailed instructions for creating art using similar techniques to those of the artist. There is a fairly wide scope of projects--acrylics, pastels, water color techniques along with more projects like mask making, sculpture, mobile making, block painting and others.

The book is colorful and beautifully illustrated. While I like all of the Usborne art books, this one stands out particularly because the pieces become inspiration for the child's creativity. The necessary supplies for the projects are very simple. I consider myself to have a fairly limited craft closet, but I have every item called for in the book. I think its content is a little advanced for kindergarten, but I plan to keep it "low pressure and experimental." I think this book would be a great resource up through elementary school.

Really beautiful sample of paintings, prints, sculptures, etc... Although my child is too young to read, we selected a few pieces of art she was interested in, and I read it to her.
If your young child watches 'Little Einstein', this book is great because some of the art pieces showcased in the cartoon are in this book. And, the book has extra tidbits about the piece and the artist, which gives the art an extra dimension and something for my child to think about when she sees the works of art in Little Einstein.
The projects suggested or inspired by each art work are also really neat. You could make it work for any age since there is a different project for each art piece.

My only minor gripe is that some of the paintings are folded in the binding since the book is not an extra large size. This takes a bit away from the 'wow' factor of the pieces.

I ordered this book because others had rated it so highly and am so glad I did. There are nice brief bios of each artist or art style. A nice illustration of the featured work and best of all fabulous step by step instructions for how to make a beautiful project with kids of any age.

Rosie Dickins (with the help of Dr. Erika Langmuir) has brought a wonderful learning concept to help children grasp the 'reality' of art.

For youngsters art can be a difficult concept to understand. Oh sure there are pretty pictures and statues, but so what. Right?
So why was a particular work of art done? What did it feel like to create that artwork?

Here the child is 1st introduced to an artist (22 in all). From child easy Calder, Okeeffe, Klee, Kandinsky to heavyweights like Whistler, van Gigh, Turner, Pollock (a deliberate mess?). Your child learns alittle about the artist, their time, and what their type of expression was about.

Then you do an art project inspired by that artist using various media = giftwrap, felt pens, paint, foil, forks $ straws etc.
Example: you read about a famous water lily painting built up out of layers of paint (guess who). Then you make your own lily picture using layers of colored tissue paper. Our child's version turned out pretty good. Made her proud and she can recognize a Monet a mile away. If only math was this fun!

I was given this book as a graduation gift from my mentor. After paging through the book I was inspired for many art history based projects!

There are over 20 lessons on full colored, bright pages. Each lesson has a famous artist example and a wonderful lesson based on that artwork. There is an entire page, with the image, that talks about the artist and a few tid bits on their lives. [a perfect amount for elementary level students' attention spans!] In addition to the image and artist info is a step by step instruction to the lesson with pictures! Wonderful.

I recently complted a Georgia O Keeffe lesson [cutting flowers] with my third grade and they loved it! I am looking forward to some of the other lessons, like McNeill Whistlers Falling Rocket. [the students make a city scene with fireworks exploding in the sky!] I highly recommend this book as a wonderful supplement to the elementary art classroom.

I have been using this book all summer with my daughter and nieces. The artwork in this book is well chosen and a great introduction to famous pieces of art. The information about the art and artist is simple to understand and age-appropriate for elementary school, although I have easily modified it for a child as young as three. I love that every project following the famous art piece is different, which keeps the interest factor way up. I highly recommend this book both as a broad exposure to famous art as well as encouraging young artists to create their own masterpieces.

We used this book for our homeschool co-op and it was fantastic. Kids of any age can use this book and produce something they will be happy with. Loved that it had so many media's.......that allowed kids to see what their strengths were and then find more things to build on it. It also let all of the kids experience something new that they could take home and practice/refine if they wanted. Would highly recommend to anyone.

I have had lots of fun with this book, love the pictures and ideas. Great for
kids or late blooming artists in their mid fifties. (-:

This book is FANTASTIC. I purchased several books of this nature only to realize that the others, while they referenced the work of art, didn't have pictures to go with it.
This Art treasury has color photos of the actual artist's pieces, with personal information about the artist and his or her type of media and style.
It also has step by step directions for children (and even adults) of projects to go along with each popular work of art. There are even color photographs of samples.
Great book.

This is a wonderful children's book for anyone wanting to learn more about such great artists as Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keefe, Vincent Van Gogh, and more. I teach an after-school art class, and I have used many of the lessons in this book with great success. Each lesson focuses on one great work of art, gives an interesting overview of the artist's life, then gives clear and simple directions on how to create a masterpiece using the artist's work as inspiration. The projects are fun for kids, and encourage them to use various media such as paints, oil pastels, cut paper, even sculptures made with aluminum foil.